Brescia – Since its debut in 2022, South Korea has become one of the great protagonists of the Lampo Trophy. At its first participation, it took the women’s title, a year later the men’s and in 2024 both, becoming the fifth nation capable of signing the double in the under-12 event of the Tennis Europe calendar, after Italy, Canada, France and Great Britain (the last, in 2018). A triumph almost already written on the eve, because among the nine national teams competing on the courts of Tennis Forza e Costanza 1911, the Asian one showed up with the label of the favorite, but then the superiority must also be translated on the court. A task that the Koreans led by Giljung An and Sungino Yang were able to do very well, dominating their groups (also at the expense of the two Italian selections) and then winning the semifinals and finals without giving up a point. The first to complete the work were the boys, against their rivals from Austria, a country that had surprisingly mocked them in the decisive match two years ago. This time, however, there was no match: Kim Noah resolved the duel against Fabian Leitner with a double 6-2, signing the first point, while in the second match Choi Mingeon (undefeated during the Brescia competition) won even more easily against Linus Moser, conquering with a score of 6-2 6-1 the success that was worth the second men’s title in a row.

About twenty minutes later, the double came thanks to the girls, who also promoted 2-0 in the match against Switzerland. After the rapid advantage of Kim Ayul, who scored 6-2 6-1 against Lilly Falkenberg, the Swiss dreamed of dragging the challenge to the decisive doubles when Liv Bretscher snatched the first set from Kim Seohyeon, who was too foul-heavy in the first part of the match. But then the Korean put her tennis in order and became the master of the duel: she evened the scores by winning the second set 6-2 and then confirmed her superiority in the final tie-break match, until the 3-6 6-2 10/6 that started the party. “We are very satisfied with this edition – said Gianni Capacchietti, creator and director of the event –, both for how it went from an organizational point of view and for the level seen on the field, in particular from South Korea who proved to be really strong. I feel sorry for Italy: they ended up in two really tough groups and therefore did not pass the first phase, but in the men’s I saw three kids with great potential. I think they can all have a great future. As for our future, as always we have a long series of requests to participate, so much so that we are evaluating increasing the number of national teams. The goal would be to go up to 12 men and 12 women, to be divided into three groups of 4 each. Everything will depend on the budget, because the costs are increasingly higher, but there is the will to grow even more”.